Like Suns Risen at the End of Time:

Metaphor and Meaning in the Mahābhārata

Abstract

The article "Like Suns Risen at the End of Time: Metaphor and Meaning in the Mahābhārata" by Vaughan Pilikian offers a close, interpretive reading of selected verses from the Droṇaparvan (Book 7), illuminating the Mahābhārata’s metaphoric density, especially in its war narratives. Pilikian argues that the Sanskrit battle passages resist literal translation because their meaning unfolds through sound patterns, etymology, and metaphorical associations. He pays special attention to images of light, the sun, and fire—recurring motifs that encode the ecstatic intensity and destructive transcendence of war. In Pilikian’s reading, the warriors become cosmic agents whose actions mirror the cycles of sunrise and sunset, evoking apocalypse and renewal.

The article suggests that the Mahābhārata’s poetic style—especially in the Droṇaparvan—intentionally resists fixed meaning. Language itself becomes a battlefield where semantic multiplicity mirrors ontological uncertainty. Translation, then, is not merely linguistic substitution but an interpretive and spiritual challenge. By embracing ambiguity and poetic resonance, Pilikian demonstrates how the epic weaves meaning through metaphor, not philosophical exposition. His analysis reveals the epic’s artistry, where metaphor transforms narrative into cosmological experience.